FWDay2018: At Bupa, It’s OK to Flex for Your Day

Here at Bupa, we have undertaken our very own pilot program to explore flexible ways of working in a business that operates over multiple sections in the health and care sector. Our goals in undertaking the pilot were to challenge some of the myths surrounding flexible working, understand the underlying blocks that presently might exist to encouraging more flexible ways of working and to open the conversation for our people and their leaders. To do this we called the pilot “It’s OK to Flex for Your Day”, identifying from the outset that its ok to have the conversation.

Our pilot also was not launched across the whole business in one go – we selected the People team and the Transformation team to work closely with, and to capture insights from those people participating, including asking people to share their flex experiences both good and bad, and to explain why flexible working was important to them. In doing so, really powerful and personal experiences were shared and highlighted that our people do regard flexible working as important to them in choosing to work at Bupa.

Whilst a number of key insights were garnered from the pilot – the most important one was identified as trust. Employees were more confident to engage in a conversation about flexible working where they believed they could trust their leader to engage in an open, constructive, and respectful conversation with them about adjusting aspects of their working arrangements to find the flexibility.

One of the challenges we face as part of bringing flexibility to a large and varied workforce is accepting that the path towards a successful embedding of flexibility as part our employee experience needs to recognise that there is no single solution for all of our people. Many of our people already work part-time, and some do not have the capacity to work from home as a result of the clinical nature of their roles. Our ability to listen to the needs of our businesses will assist us in devising solutions for our workforce over time.

It’s a journey, and we are excited for the next phase of bringing flexible working to more and more of our amazing people.”

Whilst a number of key insights were garnered from the pilot – the most important one was identified as trust. Employees were more confident to engage in a conversation about flexible working where they believed they could trust their leader to engage in an open, constructive, and respectful conversation with them about adjusting aspects of their working arrangements to find the flexibility.

One of the challenges we face as part of bringing flexibility to a large and varied workforce is accepting that the path towards a successful embedding of flexibility as part our employee experience needs to recognise that there is no single solution for all of our people. Many of our people already work part-time, and some do not have the capacity to work from home as a result of the clinical nature of their roles. Our ability to listen to the needs of our businesses will assist us in devising solutions for our workforce over time.

It’s a journey, and we are excited about the next phase of bringing flexible working to more and more of our amazing people.”